To Fear the Spanish Navy

Geoffrey Norman

May 22, 2013 2:21 PM

Spain has its problems, including an unemployment rate that could be a prelude to revolution or ruin ... or both. But the country seemed to feel it needed a fleet of warships. To include submarines. It made plans to build four of them, but there was a problem. As Roberto A. Ferdman at Quartz reports:

One of Spain’s largest defense splurges may also be one of its most embarrassing. After spending nearly one-third of a $3 billion budget to build four of the world’s most advanced submarines, the project’s engineers have run into a problem: the submarines are so heavy that they would sink to the bottom of the ocean.

The subs will need to be rebuilt and re-engineered if they are to be seaworthy. One does wonder why Spain ever felt it needed the “state-of-the-art submarines which were meant to be the first entirely Spanish-designed and built. Incompetence is likely going to cost the country at least some of the glory.”